Finland is the world’s cleanest and greenest country

According to the EPI index in year 2016 (Environmental Performance Index) prepared by Yale and Columbia Universities, Finland is the world’s cleanest and greenest country.

The index compares how ecosystems and people’s health are protected in different countries. The index takes into account how states take care of air quality, clean water and their water resources and how they manage agriculture, forests and fish stocks.

The index score is also influenced by energy solutions and the states’ attitude to the diversity of nature and climate change.

Finland’s air, forests, lakes and drinking water are exceptionally clean by global standards. More than 80% of Finland’s lakes are either good or excellent in quality. More than 70% of Finland’s land area is forest, which makes Finland one of the most forested countries in the world. The air quality in Finland is good, because Finland is situated far from big sources of emissions and because Finland’s own emissions have been successfully curtailed. According to WHO, Finland has the cleanest air of the EU countries and the third cleanest air in the world after Canada and Iceland.

The score justifying Finland’s number one position in the EPI index is 90.68. After Finland came Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and Slovenia. The EPI report praises many of Finland’s environmentally friendly objectives. Finland intends to create a carbon-neutral society by 2050, in which nature’s capacity is no longer exceeded.

Finland has also passed a decree according to which as much as 38% of Finnish energy production willbe renewable in 2020. Already now most electricity is produced in an environmentally-friendly manner in Finland.

According to the EPI report, great global concerns are deteriorating air quality and decreasing fish stocks. There are 550 million people living without clean water in the world. As much as a half of the world’s population is exposed to dangerous respiratory air. Almost every fourth state does not treat its waste water at all. The EPI index includes 180 states.

“Finland has the opportunity to develop into a gem of nature tourism. We have clean and exuberant nature all over the country in the vicinity of good connections and services. Holistic nature experiences can be built for tourists, for admiring the silent wilderness landscape, picking berries and mushrooms for food on an excursion, going to the sauna next to clean waters and waiting in a hide-out for the majestic bear to arrive from the shade of the forest as the night falls,” says biodiversity expert Riku Lumiaro of the Finnish Environment Institute.

EPI TOP-10 2016

“Finland has the opportunity to develop into a gem of nature tourism. We have clean and exuberant nature all over the country in the vicinity of good connections and services.”

“Holistic nature experiences can be built for tourists, for admiring the silent wilderness landscape, picking berries and mushrooms for food on an excursion, going to the sauna next to clean waters “

Finland

Surface area 338,440 km2

Population 5.5 million

Population density 18.1 persons/km2

71.6 % of Finland’s surface area is forest

10.2 % of Finland’s surface area is lakes

188,887 lakes

178,947 islands

314,000 km of shoreline

Finnish Environment InstituteThe Finnish Environment Institute is a national research organisation which produces information on the environment and the development of its state and the factors affecting it and creates solutions for promoting sustainable development. www.syke.fi